Journalists call on the VRU to reject the draft bill restricting access to court rulings

Illustration by IMI

Ukrainian journalists and media organizations call on the Verkhovna Rada not to pass the draft bill No. 7033-d "On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Preventing Disclosure of Certain Information in Court Rulings", according to the statement signed by the Institute of Mass Information, the court journalism outlet Graty, the NGO and group of media outlets "Detector Media", and the Media Movement.

The signatories believe that this draft bill will significantly impede reporting on court cases related to the war, thus depriving the public of control over justice in important court processes.

The initiative "effectively makes rulings in cases related to the war, national security, army, and mobilization, which are of significant public interest, off-limits to the public."

"We view the draft bill No. 7033-d as an attempt at censorship, which will significantly narrow the possibilities for public control over important judicial processes and is likely to facilitate arbitrary rulings," the statement reads.

In addition, journalists with media outlets that often report on court publicly important processes and investigations see that the draft bill risks to interfere with their work and infringe on the readers' rights to receive reliable information about the events in Ukraine.

"Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion, we have been actively monitoring and covering the trials in crimes related to the war, national security, collaborators, draft dodging, etc., using data from the Unified Register of Court Decisions as a source," the statement said.

The signatories list the provisions of the draft bill No. 7033-d:

• Postponing the publication of court rulings – the draft bill proposes that the documents appear in the register only one year after martial law is lifted.
• Giving judges the right not to release information that was announced in open court "for security reasons" if the judges believe it "may help identify" places and critical infrastructure facilities. "However, this information can be easily found online. And judges will be guided by their convictions only when making such decisions. All rulings in these cases that were passed since the introduction of martial law will disappear from the court register," the statement said.

The signatories note that even now, instead of withholding only sensitive information from the public, judges prefer to close off the entire court process, "vaguely referring to 'security councerns', which makes journalists unable to find the ruling in a case in the register."

"The new draft bill will scale up and legitimize this practice," the signatories note and call on the deputies to reject this draft bill.

The Verkhovna Rada may review the draft bill as early as today, May 23.

The statement is open for signing – signatures can be added by following the link.

On May 16, multiple human rights watchdogs called on the Verkhovna Rada not to pass the draft bill No. 7033-d "On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Preventing Disclosure of Certain Information in Court Rulings." The watchdogs stress: the draft bill limits access to information and the court register rulings, which are of significant public interest and are important for public control over the work of the law enforcement.